The Military Life & Times of General Sir Miles Dempsey GBE KCB DSO MC: Monty's Army Commander

By Peter Rostron

Miles Dempsey, Commander of the British Second Army in the invasion of Europe 1944-45, is almost unknown to the general public. Yet his part in Britains contribution to that campaign was second only to Montgomerys in importance. Dempsey survived two and a half years of bitter fighting as an infantry officer on the Western Front before accompanying his beloved Royal Berkshire Regiment in the little-known North West Persia campaign of 1920-21. In six years he rose from Major to command over half a million men in the largest combined operation in history, and led them to victory a year later.Based on sources which include some of Dempseys previously unpublished work and the views of those who knew him, the book traces his career as a soldier of rare distinction, a talented sportsman and a man of huge charm and shrewd intellect, dedicated to his beloved regiment and ever mindful of the lives of his soldiers. Peter Rostron examines his methods of command and his relationships with Montgomery, his Corps commanders, the Americans and the RAF. It highlights his crucial role in the Dunkirk evacuation, the training of the Canadian Army, and the invasion of Sicily, Italy, and North West Europe, and analyses why his army performed so brilliantly on D Day. Lasly, Rostron examines his contribution to the campaign in Europe, focussing on the controversial operations of EPSOM, GOODWOOD, Arnhem and the Rhine Crossing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 19, 2010
• ISBN: 9781844684885

Book preview

1. Captain of the School XI, 1914. (Dempsey Family Collection)

2. Cricket at Shrewsbury. (Dempsey Family Collection)

3. MD as a schoolboy at Shrewsbury. (Dempsey Family Collection)

4. The Somme 1916. MD with V.G. Stokes. (Dempsey Family Collection)

5. The Somme 1916. Royal Berkshire wounded. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum))

6. The Somme 1918. Royal Berkshires attack at Ayette. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

7. Survivors. Officers of 1st Royal Berkshires, November 1918. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

8. NW Persia, MD at Gangah, 1921. (Dempsey Family Collection)

9. NW Persia, 1921. Cossacks. (Dempsey Family Collection)

10. Bareilly. Royal Berkshires on the march. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

11. Bareilly. MD (second left) with brother officers. (Dempsey Family Collection)

12. Bareilly. Royal Berkshire officers. MD middle row, four from end. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

13. RMC Sandhurst. O’Connor (front left) and MD (four rows back). (Dempsey Family Collection)

14. Estonia, 1925. MD (rear right) and brother officers. (Dempsey Family Collection)

15. Staff College, 1931. Foreign Tour. MD (rear right) with his study group. (Dempsey Family Collection)

16. Staff College, 1931. MD out with the Drag. (Dempsey Family Collection)

17. South Africa, 1937. MD (far left) with fellow instructors. (Dempsey Family Collection)

18. South Africa, 1937. MD (far right) on a flight to Northern Rhodesia. (Dempsey Family Collection)

19. Commander 13 Brigade, 1939. MD with Stanley Oliver, War Minister, inspecting a guard of honour. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

20. North Africa, 1943. MD and Monty study the ground. (Dempsey Family Collection)

21. Italy, 1943. MD with Guy Simonds. (Dempsey Family Collection)

22. Italy, 1943. MD with members of his staff. (Dempsey Family Collection)

23. Normandy, 1944. MD with Crocker and Bucknall. (Dempsey Family Collection)

24. Ike, Monty, Patton, Bradley, three Corps Commanders and MD. (Dempsey Family Collection)

25. Holland 1944. MD with the King and Monty. (Dempsey Family Collection)

26. AVM Harry Broadhurst with MD. (Dempsey Family Collection)

27. MD with Boyle, 83 Group. (Dempsey Family Collection)

28. MD with his pilot, Oliver Murphy, and his ‘whizzer’. (Dempsey Family Collection)

29. MD and his ‘whizzer’. (Dempsey Family Collection)

30. Rhine Crossing, 1945. (Dempsey Family Collection)

31. After the Rhine crossing, MD with Churchill and Monty. (Rifles Wardrobe Museum)

32. Peace. MD meets the Russians. (Dempsey Family Collection)

33. Singapore. MD with Alanbrooke. (Dempsey Family Collection)

34. Dutch East Indies, 1945. MD with Christison and Dutch Commanders. (Dempsey Family Collection)

35. Dutch East Indies, 1946. MD with Monty Stopford. (Dempsey Family Collection)

36. Racing, Highlander Stakes. Paul Maxwell the jockey. (Dempsey Family Collection)

37. MD and Tuppenny, on their wedding day. (Dempsey Family Collection)

38. Colonel of the Regiment. The King inspects at Brock Barracks, accompanied by MD, 1948. (Dempsey Family Collection)

Preface

When I was first asked to write about Miles Dempsey I knew very little of him. I had studied the Normandy Campaign at Staff College, and walked the course for the D-Day landings and Operation GOODWOOD. I had heard his name and had a hazy idea of his position in the hierarchy. In that respect, I suspect I shared my ignorance with the great majority of the British public.

As I came to know him better, two things became apparent to me – the first, that little had ever been written either by or about him. This was largely due to his reticence, and to old-fashioned notions of loyalty and a dislike of self-aggrandisement. Second, I came to perceive that, in addition to these admirable traits, he possessed in abundance all the military virtues – leadership based on self-confidence, a shrewd tactical brain, calmness in a crisis, total disregard for danger, and a ‘big’ personality, able to make quick decisions and stick to them. I also realized that he had played an enormously important role in the great events that shaped the world in which we now live. That he had not received his fair share of plaudits was as much due to the desire on the part of others to seek glory as to his own reticence.

No biography had ever been written, largely because of the lack of source material on which to base one. He ordered the majority of his papers to be burned, and produced nothing for the public domain. But, despite this dearth of material, what I did see induced in me huge respect, not least because of the calibre of those who passed favourable judgement on him. These ranged from major figures such as Montgomery, Mountbatten, Leese, Horrocks and de Guingand to Selwyn Lloyd, a wartime soldier who went on to great things in politics, and had no axe to grind on the military front. Not only did they all agree on his unusual ability, they remained loyal for years after all military ties had been severed. It is indeed hard to find anyone with a harsh word to say about him.

I was extremely fortunate to be offered by the Dempsey family a collection of letters, diaries, including trench diaries from the Great War, papers and photographs – the Dempsey Family Collection – which had never been seen before by researchers, and which enabled me to add a human dimension to the otherwise laconic official sources. I owe them, and especially James Dempsey, a great debt of gratitude.

I am also grateful to Dr Peter Caddick-Adams, of the UK Defence Academy, and Dr Stephen Hart of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, who gave me much helpful advice. I am grateful to the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives of King’s College London, for giving me access to their invaluable sources, and to the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College Cambridge, Southampton University Library, the Joint Services Command and Staff College Library, the archives of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the National Archives Kew, for their help.

I have been lucky enough to have received enormous help and encouragement from the successors to Dempsey’s old regiment, the Royal Berkshires. After many mutations occasioned by the vagaries of changing defence requirements, their records are now held by the Rifles Wardrobe Museum, Salisbury. Their staff, especially ‘Mac’ Macintyre and John Peters, led by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Cornwell, have been quite outstanding in their help, and I am most grateful to them, and to Brigadier Patrick Davidson-Houston, Colonel Mike Vernon-Powell and Lieutenant Colonel David Stone, all with strong links to the Berkshires, for their unfailing encouragement. I have been privileged to interview individuals who knew Dempsey, and I am grateful to them for their insights.

I am also grateful to the Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum; the Royal Military Police Museum; Christ Church, Portsdown; Shrewsbury School and in particular the Head of History, Dr O’Morrogh; and all the trustees and copyright holders who have given me permission to quote from works consulted. I have endeavoured to ensure in every case that rights have been respected, and if I have erred in any respect I am ready to make suitable acknowledgement.

Map 1: Dempsey’s Battlefields, 1916–18.

Map 2: Mesopotamia and Northern Persia, 1920–21.

Map 3: Sicily and Southern Italy, 1943.

Map 4: Normandy and The Low Countries, 1944–45.

Prologue

On the evening of 4 June 1944, the congregation at Christ Church, Portsdown, was unusually large. Built in 1874, overlooking the English Channel on land donated by the Army, the large, airy church was used by the garrisons of the nearby forts to hold their own services, and to conduct military burials. On this evening there were so many soldiers worshipping that they overflowed into the area outside. The two officiating priests were The Revd R.B.S. Gilman, vicar of Christ Church, and The Revd J.W.J. Steele, Senior Chaplain Second Army. As they entered the church, the congregation stood, led by the tall, imposing figure of their general in the front pew.

Lieutenant General Miles Christopher Dempsey had arranged this service for the officers and men of Headquarters Second Army, on the eve of the planned date for the largest combined military operation the world has ever seen – D-Day, the invasion of Europe. General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, commanding the British, Canadian and American land forces for the invasion, had already called in a personal message to all those involved, that ‘The Lord Mighty in Battle’ would go forth with their armies, and that His special providence would aid them in the struggle. Now Dempsey, a devout Christian, called on his men, in the service known as ‘The Knight’s Vigil’, to dedicate to Almighty God the task which lay before them. Accompanied by his Chief of Staff and his Deputy, he led them in that evocative prayer which he had known thirty years before at Shrewsbury;

Teach us good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to ask for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will.

With characteristic modesty, Dempsey asked that someone other than himself should read the lesson. His example during this voluntary act of dedication before the great armada set off expressed many of the fundamentals of his personality: strong religious belief, selfless integrity, professional dedication and extraordinary humility.

Within forty-eight hours thousands of troops under Dempsey’s command were fighting in Normandy.

CHAPTER 1

‘School’

The Dempseys originated in Ireland, and Terence O’Dempsey, a senior member of the Gaelic aristocracy, was knighted on the field of battle at Kiltenan in County Limerick by the earl of Essex in 1589. As a result of his faithful service to the Crown, he was later created Viscount Glinmalery and Baron of Philipstown. By 1821, the family had settled in England, and James Dempsey, husband of Ann, was head of Dempsey and Pickard, timber merchants of Liverpool. Of James’s six children, Louisa married John Tarr, MP for Liverpool, while Henry and Arthur continued in the timber trade. Arthur, who became a timber broker, moved out to the Cheshire plain, and in 1857 his wife bore a son, Arthur Francis.

Arthur Francis became a marine insurance underwriter’s clerk, a profession which enabled him and his wife, Margaret Maud, to buy 7 Sandringham Drive, a comfortable house in the prosperous neighbourhood of New Brighton, Wallasey. Here they lived a typically middle-class life with a housekeeper, a cook and Elizabeth, a nursemaid. Elizabeth looked after the three Dempsey children, all boys, of whom the eldest, James, was born in 1889. Like his brother Patrick who was christened at St Mary’s, Wallasey, in October 1893, he had the unusual middle name of De La Fosse, his mother’s maiden name. Her father, Major General Henry De La Fosse CB, was one of the few survivors of the Cawnpore massacre in the Indian Mutiny.

In December 1896, a third son, Miles Christopher, was born, but when he was just six years old the family was enveloped in sorrow when their father committed suicide, apparently as a result of financial difficulties. It was an event which Miles would never discuss. Margaret moved to Crawley in Sussex, from where James enrolled at Dartmouth Naval College, and in 1908 Patrick entered Shrewsbury, a well-established public school in Shropshire. A number of Salopians had gained eminence in public life, probably the best known being Darwin, the evolutionist. At the time of Patrick’s arrival the school was becoming a little set in its ways, but this changed dramatically with the appointment that year of Cyril Argentine Alington as Headmaster.

Alington, at just thirty-six years of age, was younger than all of the rest of the staff but two. Educated at Marlborough and Trinity, Oxford, he was elected to All Souls in 1896 and ordained in the Church of England in 1901. He came to Shrewsbury from teaching at his old school, where he had already established an impressive reputation. He was blessed with almost every gift to ensure a successful career. Extraordinarily handsome, stimulating, theatrical in voice and manner, endowed with huge charisma and profound oratorical powers, his sermons had a deep and lasting effect on the boys. Nevil Shute, the writer, then Nevil Shute Norway, wrote of ‘The restrained, masculine school services in the chapel’ which so impressed him, and another described how he had every boy silent, moved and tense on the edge of his pew. Alington was later to become Headmaster of Eton, Chairman of the Headmasters’ Conference, and Chaplain to the King from 1921 until 1933.

To Miles, who followed Patrick to Shrewsbury in 1911, probably of equal importance was the Headmaster’s sporting prowess. As a young man Alington was a very successful cricketer, fives and rackets player, and both Dempsey boys showed much promise as sportsmen. Patrick, to whom Miles was to remain extremely close throughout his life, was in the school cricket eleven, and by the time his elder brother left, Miles was already establishing a reputation as an outstanding player. He captained the school side for one of their most memorable seasons in 1914, when they lost only one match. The Salopian for that year records its hearty congratulations to the Captain, M.C. Dempsey: ‘It is always gratifying to those interested in school cricket to see the skipper giving a lead to his crew, and this our skipper has done with rare exceptions at the wicket, where his nerve, pluck and steady patience have been a grand example and encouragement to his followers.’¹

Describing the ‘characters’ of the team, the journal notes that Dempsey was a very steady, patient bat, but too fond of driving off his right leg, and diffident of his bowling powers. Among the eleven in this, the last season before the war, were B.H. Ellis, ‘a good field and catch’, and T. Onslow, ‘an improving bowler who could make a run or two’.

Miles had decided early on a military career, possibly influenced by his grandfather and by James, who had run away from Dartmouth at sixteen and joined the French Foreign Legion. He was in the Army Class, on the classical side, when the school broke up for the summer holidays. He attended the OTC tented camp at Rugeley as a sergeant, where with other schools under their own masters as officers, and a small number of regulars, they carried out large-scale manoeuvres based on Boer War tactics. He returned for the Michaelmas term with every intention of completing another year at Shrewsbury, but the events of August 1914 had changed everything for ever, and in October, along with J.P. Moreton and G.F. Maclean, he left for the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; he was aged just seventeen years and nine months. In the course of the next year, every player in the cricket eleven, and all but two of the twenty-one monitors enlisted. By the end of the war, even members of staff were being called up; one of those to go was a brilliant young sixth-form master, Philip Bainbrigge, whose weak build and thick spectacles did not save him from soldiering – and dying – in the ranks.

Dempsey could look back on his time at Shrewsbury with satisfaction. On top of his success on the cricket field, he was a school and house monitor, and played in the second eleven football. As a general rule, a housemaster probably influences a boy’s character more than does the headmaster, but Dempsey’s housemaster, A.F. Chance, had been in post for thirty years. It is to the effect of the young and enormously energetic Alington’s huge persona that the deep religious faith and upright, honourable character, which were to be Dempsey’s throughout his life, may largely be attributed. As well as some photographs, Dempsey kept to the end of his life his cricketing records, and a collection of typed handouts on religious themes, such as an analysis of the Bible, from his time at Shrewsbury.

The Royal Military College, to which Dempsey reported, had had to adapt quickly to the demands of war. Although potential gentlemen cadets were still required to pass an entrance exam, and the majority of parents were expected to pay fees (the usual £150 per year in his case), the course had been shortened dramatically so as to produce the maximum number of officers for a rapidly expanding army. Dempsey and Maclean joined the sixty-five cadets of G Company, commanded by Captain Eden, Black Watch, as did Nevil Shute’s brother, F.H. Norway. Many of their fellow cadets came from traditional backgrounds, and the fathers of the four next to Dempsey in the College Register were described as ‘Lt Colonel’, ‘Gentleman JP’, ‘Parliamentary Agent’ and ‘Gentleman’.

The one-year course at Sandhurst, prior to the outbreak of war, was known for its hard life and strict discipline. Impeccable standards were demanded and the cadets’ drill was intended to be the best in the British Army. A famous product of the College wrote: ‘One’s natural instinct when shooting starts is to lie in a ditch and stay there until it is all over; and it is only through discipline and training that one can make oneself get out and go forward.’ The fervour, or lack of it, with which cadets applied themselves to their studies depended in many cases on whether they were desperate to obtain entry to the Indian Army – where an officer could live on his pay – or the British Army, where he probably could not. Cadets had to ride, the cause of heartache to many. The war changed all that.

Eden and the platoon commanders, Captain Robinson, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and Captain Tonson-Rye, Royal Munster Fusiliers, instructed in organization, minor tactics and the welfare and administration of soldiers. Colour Sergeant Morris, Coldstream Guards and Sergeant Mulally, Irish Guards, taught drill and musketry.

The course was the second short wartime one, and the civilian clothing on several of the cadets in the photograph of G Company from December 1914 – two months after the course began – points to administrative problems that still needed to be overcome. The course was designed to produce officers in five months, but there was flexibility in the system. Dempsey passed out in February 1915, but others of his intake did not become officers until March, April or even, in the cases of Dashwood of the East Yorks, or Dyer of the Bedfordshire Regiment, until May.

When Dempsey left Sandhurst he was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment, whose 1st (Regular) Battalion was fighting in France. Before a young officer joined a unit at the front, he had to attend numerous courses, to acquaint him with the mechanics of trench warfare. His first port of call was always to the regiment’s depot, where Regimental Headquarters (a purely administrative body) was housed, along with the museum and the Training Company which put new recruits through their induction into the Army. Dempsey reported as a new second lieutenant to Brock Barracks, Reading, home of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the 49th and 66th Foot. A solid county regiment, the Berkshires had earned honours in every corner of the globe from Brandywine Creek, where they trounced George Washington, to China, and, like every other regiment worth its salt, considered themselves second to none. Dempsey’s choice of regiment was a happy one. It was to be his home and inspiration for many years. He was then posted to the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion in Dublin to learn his craft.

While Miles was training, James and Patrick enlisted in the 5th (Service) Battalion the Royal Irish Fusiliers, which formed at Dublin. James, who had been bought out of the Foreign Legion, was the first of the family to be commissioned, and was gazetted Second Lieutenant on 19 December 1914, while Miles was still a Gentleman Cadet. Patrick was also commissioned and the brothers were together in the Battalion, part of the 10th (Irish) Division, when it was despatched to the Mediterranean. It was to serve under General Sir Ian Hamilton, whose task was to seize the Dardanelles, and put Turkey out of the war. When the first phase of the campaign had ended in stalemate, Hamilton’s operational plan was to make a fresh landing at Suvla Bay, in the hope of gaining surprise and outflanking the Turks. In August, Miles and his mother received grim news of Patrick.

On 6 August 1915, the Fusiliers were still ignorant of the plan when the sound of gunfire and flashes in the night sky had indicated their objective. At 0700 next day, lighters had come alongside and two companies at a time landed on ‘C’ Beach under fire. At 1100, they were ordered to attack the heights of Lala Baba. The plan was difficult, involving a move in one direction, followed by a change of direction for the final assault. This was difficult enough, but an added problem was that they had to narrow their frontage in order to pass the Salt Lake, where they were under the observed fire of some twenty Turksh guns. As the Fusiliers struggled knee deep through the brackish mud, Patrick was wounded in the stomach. The Battalion suffered heavily in the assault and with great difficulty settled in to hastily dug trenches on Green Hill. The Turks counter-attacked ferociously and on 19 August James was also wounded.

The war had struck home to the Dempsey family. Although both brothers returned to active service, Miles and his mother passed a troubling few weeks. The chances of recovery from wounds were much lower then than today, and the remoteness of the theatre added to their worries. Their concern was only increased when James volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps, in which almost as many pilots were killed in training as in combat. James distinguished himself, winning the Military Cross, and setting a benchmark for Miles.

Meanwhile, B.H. Ellis, the ‘good field and catch’ of the Shrewsbury 1914 cricket side, was killed by a shell when wounded, serving with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry; ‘Fred’ Norway of G Company died of wounds in June while serving with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry; and in September, T.S. Woods, Dempsey’s fellow monitor, was killed in action with the Royal Field Artillery. With the long shadow of the war beginning to darken everyone’s lives, Nevil Shute described the atmosphere at Shrewsbury in these words:

The list of the school casualties grew every day. Older boys that we knew intimately, one who had perhaps been monitor in one’s bedroom, appeared once or twice resplendent in their new uniform, and were dead. We remembered them as we had known them less than a year before, as we knelt praying for their souls in chapel, knowing as we did so that in a year or so the little boys in our own house would be kneeling for us.²

Dempsey must have been conscious that he was embarking on a profession that demanded much and gave little. Promoted Lieutenant in August 1915, he attended courses, slowly mastering the role of an infantry officer on active service, and in June 1916 he at last joined the 1st Battalion Royal Berkshires in France. Shortly before Dempsey arrived, another fellow monitor from Shrewsbury, E. Pitcairn Jones, was killed while serving with the Rifle Brigade. The Berkshires were about to take part in the Somme offensive, and Dempsey was about to undergo his baptism of fire.

CHAPTER 2

‘Execute Orders Received’

The 1st Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment was at Aldershot when war was declared and reservists soon made up its strength to the wartime establishment of 800. They moved to France, participated in the retreat from Mons and by late September were in trenches at La Metz Farm. Heavily involved from 22 October to 13 November in the First Battle of Ypres, they spent the winter in and out of trenches and were involved in a further three attacks. The summer of 1915 was relatively quiet, but on 5 September the Battalion lost 288 men in one day in the Battle of Loos. At the time Dempsey joined, the Battalion was in billets behind the line, in the Béthune sector of the Somme front. The Battalion was not to move